Sensex sinks 264 pts; RIL, SBI drags

On the first day of the week, Indian markets closed in a red zone led by selling pressure across the board. SBI and Reliance Industries were the major dragger in trade today

Major Headlines

Dhanlaxmi Bank has no plans to shut branches

RIL falls after kotak cuts its price target

KFA pays 2nd installment to IT dept: sources

Unitech accused of unfair trade, stock down by 2.41%



Indian indices:

The Indian markets came out of the volatile trading mood which it has been witnessing from the past two trading sessions and witnessed deep cut in the mid-afternoon session today as selling intensified across the board.

Heavy profit booking across the board in the second half of trade dragged the markets to intraday lows. The European stocks too witnessed a fall today, which further pushed the markets lower. A rise in global risk aversion further contributed to the fall, after the weaker-than-expected US jobs data raised concerns about the outlook for the world's largest economy.

Tracking stock-specific action for the day, Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) witnessed a sharp fall in trade today. The company has paid its 2nd installment of Rs9 crore on April 7 towards pending income tax (IT) dues, according to the sources. The stock closed the trade lower, down over 6%.

Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries also slipped in today's trade, after Kotak cut its price target for the stock, citing conflicts' company signals on the use of cash and continuous weakness in chemicals and refining margin.

Small-sized private lender Dhanlaxmi Bank said that it has no plans to shut down branches or shrink operations, but has initiated steps, including salary cuts, to control costs. The stock was down by 2%.

Focusing on the banking sector, SBI fell nearly 3%, Bank of India slipped by 2% as the stocks were hit by fears about slowing deposit growth.

On the currency front, the recent decline in the Indian rupee against the dollar also put pressure on the markets. The rupee declined by 30 paise to Rs51.31 per dollar on the Interbank Foreign Exchange in early trading session of Monday.

Sensex ended at 17222, down by 264 points and the Nifty shut shop at 5234, down by 89 points.

Market sentiment

The market breadth stood in favour of declines. Of the 2932 stocks traded on the BSE, 1179 (40.21%) rose, 1640 (55.93%) fell and 113 (3.85%) remained unchanged.

Viewing volumes

Wind turbine major - Suzlon Energy was traded the most, with over 0.65 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. Following that a real estate development company - HDIL (0.36 crore shares), an integrated infrastructure development company - Lanco Infratech (0.27 crore shares), India's third largest cement producer - Jaiprakash Associates (0.21 crore shares) and Industrial Finance Company - IFCI (0.18 crore shares).

Sectoral & stock screening

All the 13 sectoral indices, closed in red zone barring BSE Health Care up by 0.32%. The topmost losers were BSE Metal which fell 3.44%, BSE CG declined 3.16% and BSE Power dropped 2.49%.

Among 'A' group stocks, top three gainers were - United Spirits which advanced 6.87%, Ranbaxy Laboratories gained 3.88% and Max India surged 3.74%. Top three losers were - Indraprastha Gas which dropped 7.07%, Dish TV India fell 6.05% and Gujarat Fluorochemicals declined 5.87%.

Global Signals

The European markets were closed today, April 9, 2012 for Easter Monday holiday.

The Asian shares declined on Monday, as a sharp slowdown in US Jobs growth raised concerns.

US stock index futures pointed to a lower opening on the Wall Street on Monday.